TDB Top 5 International Stories: Sunday 26th March 2017

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5:Trump’s Attempt to Repeal Obamacare Just Crashed and Burned

After weeks of drafting, hiding, debating, and tweaking a bill that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, House Republicans scrapped it just minutes before a scheduled vote on Tuesday. ACA repeal, which the Republican Party has been promising voters since Barack Obama signed the bill into law seven years ago, is suddenly in doubt.

The Republican-backed American Health Care Act (dubbed “Trumpcare” by some) faced resistance from legislators on both sides of the aisle—Democrats objected to a bill that would cause millions of people to lose health insurance, and some conservative Republicans were upset it didn’t strip enough provisions of the ACA. Despite President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan’s best efforts to ram the AHCA through Congress, it was clear by Friday afternoon that they couldn’t get enough Republicans onboard. Ryan reportedly went to the White House to tell Trump the votes weren’t there, and hours later, the speaker officially announced the bill would be pulled.

Vice News

4: Coalition says it hit Mosul site where civilians died

The US-led coalition bombing ISIL positions in Iraq has admitted that it carried out air raids last week at a location in west Mosul where officials and residents say scores of civilians were killed.

The acknowledgement on Saturday came hours after the United Nations said it was “stunned” by the reported deaths of civilians in suspected coalition air raids in Mosul’s ISIL-held al-Jadida district on March 17.

“An initial review of strike data … indicates that the coalition struck (ISIL) fighters and equipment, March 17, in west Mosul at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties,” the US military’s Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement on Saturday.

The coalition said it had struck the area “at the request of the Iraqi security forces” and was investigating to determine the facts and the validity of reports of civilian casualties.

Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Erbil in northern Iraq, said it took about a week for the coalition to acknowledge the air raids.

“The response came after intense pressure here in Iraq – probably popular pressure more than government pressure,” she said.

“About 200 people are thought to have died in that strike alone,” our correspondent added. “These reports of a high toll of civilian casualties were first given by the civilians who actually managed to get out of western Mosul.”

Aljazeera

3: In Major Defeat to Trump & Ryan, House GOP Pulls Bill To Repeal Obamacare

House Republicans have pulled a bill to repeal major parts of the Affordable Care Act after failing to secure enough votes despite heavy lobbying from President Trump. The bill was opposed by the entire Democratic party as well as some moderate Republicans and many members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.

House Republicans have pulled a bill to repeal major parts of the Affordable Care Act after failing to secure enough votes despite heavy lobbying from President Trump. The bill was opposed by the entire Democratic party as well as some moderate Republicans and many members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.

The bill was projected to leave 24 million fewer people insured by 2026 than under Obamacare. The bill also included over $275 billion in tax breaks for wealthy Americans.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) praised the news. “The defeat of the disastrous Trump-Ryan health care bill is a major victory for the working families of this country and for the hundreds of thousands who attended rallies and town hall meetings in opposition to this bill,” Sanders said. “What the defeat of this bill shows is that the American people will not accept legislation that provides huge tax breaks to billionaires while 24 million people are kicked off their health insurance, massive cuts are made to Medicaid and Planned Parenthood and premiums for senior citizens are dramatically increased. Our job is to improve the Affordable Care Act, not repeal it. Our job is to guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege.”

Democracy Now

2: Iraq suspends Mosul offensive after coalition airstrike atrocity

Iraqi military leaders have ordered a pause in their push to recapture west Mosul from Islamic State as international outrage mounted over a series of airstrikes that killed at least 150 people in one district of the embattled city alone.

Rescuers continued to retrieve bodies from the rubble of the Mosul Jadida neighbourhood on Saturday, more than a week after the coalition attacks, which are believed to have led to one of the highest civilian tolls in the region since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The Guardian 

1: ‘Move fast and break things’: Trump’s Obamacare failure and the backlash ahead

The James S Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House was crammed as usual but there was an extra frisson of suspense. As the press secretary, Sean Spicer, walked to the lectern, a conversation was unfolding just 27 paces away in the Oval Office. It would invalidate almost everything he said.

Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives, told Donald Trump the news he did not want to hear. Weeks of cajoling and arm-twisting to win over skeptics of their healthcare reform legislation had failed. Ryan asked the president to ditch the bill and avoid the humiliation of putting it to a vote in the House. Trump agreed.

The Guardian